Hatred and Strife
by AnEmptyInside
Summary: Completely different universe, with Naruto being the leader of a secret spec ops team in modern times, using modern weapons, killing modern people. Will likely grow to have quite an impressive bit of blood flying, occasional dismemberment of limbs.
1. Compromised

Authors notes: This story takes place in a radically different universe than the Naruto universe, taking place in modern war era with rifles instead of shurikens. There will be no pairings or romance in this story either.

And so, as night stretched its dark fingers over the sky, Naruto pulled out his axe as he creeped up on an unsuspecting guard. As Naruto slowly, painstakingly slowly, crouched towards this guard, he heard a twig snap under his feet, and quickly came to a hush. This was a mission that couldn't be compromised. The guard remained unaware of his presence, and so Naruto continued advancing, quietly. When Naruto got within reach of the guard, he quickly put his hand on the guards mouth and drove the axe deep into the neck, killing him. Seeing that he had a Dragunov rifle, he signaled for the rest of his squad to come to him.

"Sasuke, pick up the Dragunov. I want your eyes scouting out for enemies and to serve as a bit of sniper support, if needed. Keep in mind this doesn't have a silencer. Intel most likely fucked up again."

"Sir."

"The rest of you, on me, Shikamaru is taking point. Check your ammo."

Shikamaru took point. Kiba quickly followed, with Naruto following Kiba. Sasuke took the Dragunov and found a decent spot with a good sightline.

"Get ready to relocate pretty quick, Sasuke." Said Naruto.

"Right."

They crawled down the slight slope of the mountain, and stacked up on the wall of the nearest beaten up adobe building. They advanced down the street, until Sasuke radioed in.

"Patrol coming your way. 3 men, all armed with AK's. No other notable equipment."

Naruto primed his M4 CQB and took him and his men behind the wall of yet another adobe building. As the patrol passed, Naruto overhead them speaking. He couldn't understand it, as they were speaking a foreign language of which he had no clue.

"Why can't we just shoot them, sir?" inquired Kiba.

"The bodies could be found. We don't wanna compromise ourselves. Keep your trigger finger at rest for now." said Naruto.

"Assuming intelligence didn't fuck up and there's a whole army of men in this damn village..." Kiba muttered.

Naruto sighed. He knew intel probably did. They usually did. But they had to rescue a supposedly important person. Sasuke radioed in yet again.

"Machine gun emplacement further up. I advise you go down the alley your in, take a right from there and then a left and dart behind another building. This will bring you around the gun."

They did as Sasuke instructed. Then searchlights came on. Where they aware of their presence? Impossible.

"How close are we to target building, Sasuke?" asked Naruto.

"You'd have to run across the street and up a few blocks, then there's the big building with a large black roof. Can't miss it."

Across the street with searchlights on. Not a good idea.

"Any alternative routes?"

"That's the only one I'm seeing."

"Right...searchlights. That means there's gotta be a sizable amount of men out here. Contrary to intel."

"Predictable." said Kiba.

"Sasuke, do you have a clear shot on the searchlight operator?"

"I'll have to relocate. 5 minutes."

"Hurry."

Sasuke took his stuff and huffed it to the next best spot for a shot on the searchlight. Instead of shooting with the Dragunov, he opted to pull out his silenced M21 EBR. He took the shot. Headshot. Searchlights shut down.

"Go, Naruto."

Naruto, Kiba, and Shikamaru quickly sprinted across the street, went up a few blocks and reached the target building. Using the snake cam, there was 2 guys with AK's guarding the door.

"Open and clear." instructed Naruto.

They stacked up, Kiba kicked the door down, Naruto and Shikamaru entered, expertly scoring headshots on both guards. Kiba and Shikamaru went to clear out the rest of the room, in case of any enemies planning an ambush. Naruto, remembering the plan, tried to map out the best way to the second floor of the building. The person they needed to extract would be on the second floor, supposedly in the center room. He took Kiba and Shikamaru and went upstairs, and upon the center room. They opened and cleared again. There was a humanoid figure bound in ropes to a chair in the center. As Naruto went up to examine it to make sure it was the target, he noticed something tied to the targets chest. Bomb.

"Shikamaru. Work on it." said Naruto.

Shikamaru went up to see if he could defuse it.

"It's the target, sir."

"Then work on the bomb, and get it done fast.

Naruto then heard sounds. Footsteps. Thinking quick, Naruto rushed to the door and shut it, just as an arm with an AK reached inside and sprayed bullets, getting caught on the door. Naruto pulled out his M9 pistol and reached his hand around the door, shooting about 5 or 6 bullets. The man dropped dead. Kiba and Naruto set up defensive postions inside the room. Shikamaru needed time on the bomb. Another man entered, whom Kiba quickly silenced with his MP7.

"Sasuke, go loud. Shoot anyone entering the target building, we have the target. Guys got a bomb strapped to him. We need to hold while Shikamaru defuses for a few minutes."

Sasuke quickly saw that there was a truck of men approaching the building. Not good. He started taking potshots at the 6 men who left the truck, killing 3. The other 3 got inside.

"I hope you don't mind if a few of them slip by me." said Sasuke.

"No problem. Just kill as many as you can. We need to reserve ammo, so try to make it headshots only." replied Naruto.

"Easy for you to say...I'm all the way perched on this mountain in long range and your defending that little room."

Naruto chuckled.

"You're the marksman for a reason."

They got ready. This might take a while.


	2. Extraction

Sasuke reported in that there was a shit ton of men coming for them. 3 trucks, each probably carrying six men were approaching. Fast. And it was getting too dark to see.

"Switch on your NODs. Especially you, Shikamaru, we can't have you mess up on this bomb."

"Sir."

This would give them an advantage. At least the dark of night gave them a good thing. Yet, there were tons of men approaching. Naruto and Kiba had probably already neutralized at least 10 men each, and the cover left in the room was running out, being torn apart by bullets. Kiba and Naruto were behind two stone pillars in the room. Once they lost those, they would fall back to the pillars in the back of the room, then they would be without cover.

"Shikamaru, work fast. We can't hold for too much longer."

"Oh yes, rush the guy defusing the bomb that, if blown up, will kill us all. Great idea."

"This isn't the time for sarcasm, hurry up."

Kiba killed two more men that entered the room, and a third sprayed bullets and forced Kiba into cover, damaging his column. Naruto neutralized him. They were running out of mags. Typical. Kiba took potshots at 2 more men, killing one, and the other two hid behind the door. Naruto chucked a grenade. No point in silence now. Two men dropped down in front of the door, viciously torn up by the grenade.

"Got it!" said Shikamaru.

"Kiba, Shikamaru, jump out the window, and make sure to cushion the old mans fall as best you can. It's not that high up. I'll jump after. Sasuke, start heading to LZ 1. We'll meet you there."

"Sir." they all responded.

They each jumped out, and Naruto followed. They started heading for the LZ as quick as they could, what with Shikamaru carrying the man. There were men pursuing them. Naruto stopped to take a few shots at them, then kept moving. A man jumped out at Shikamaru, holding an axe. He had a bullet planted in his head.

"Always was quite the show off..." said Shikamaru.

Sasuke smirked. He continued moving towards the LZ.

They advanced through the dilapidated adobe buildings. All of the sudden, a heavy machine gun started spraying bullets over them. They quickly took cover.

"Sasuke. How bout you plant a bullet in the head of the heavy machine gun operator." said Naruto.

"Sir. I'll be a minute."

"Damn it. Kiba! Suppress the MG. Keep suppressing until Sasuke has taken the shot!"

"Sir. Suppressive fire."

Kiba started firing bullets at the MG in order to stop it from firing for awhile. Naruto and Shikamaru were neutralizing more men.

"In position and lining up the shot." radioed in Sasuke.

Sasuke took the shot. The MG operator was quickly dropped. They continued their advance throughout the village.

"This old fart is damn heavy..." complained Shikamaru.

"Do I need to lift some of that load off your candy ass?" said Naruto, clearly exasperated.

"Of course not. I have the right to complain about what I bloody well please."

"Why the hell is this guy so damn important?" asked Kiba.

"Once we bring this guy back, he's gonna be commanding the operations in this area, though I doubt he'll get too involved with the various spec op teams."

They were close to the primary LZ. Sasuke radioed in.

"LZ's got a few people in there. I'll clear 'em out, but you people need to hurry. The Chinook pilot says he's not got much fuel left, so he has to get in there, pick us up, and get out. No waiting time."

"Damn it. Pick up the pace, people!" shouted Naruto.

More pursuers chasing them. Naruto dropped two of them and reloaded, and as he reached for his ammo pouch he realized he was out of mags.

"Fuck! Kiba! I'm out! I'll assist Shikamaru and you have to engage those hostiles!"

Naruto ran up to Shikamaru and held the other side of the old man. Kiba whirled around and engaged the targets with his MP7.

"Just so you know, I've not much ammo left either!" shouted Kiba.

They reached the LZ. The Chinook chopper was going down. They loaded the old man, and Shikamaru and Sasuke shot at the enemies while Kiba and Naruto were getting on, before getting on themselves.

"Safe..." sighed Shikamaru.

"Where we going now?" asked Kiba.

"We're going back to base to drop off the old man, then we're getting deployed into a valley that's reportedly been infested by enemy activity. We are to take out key points of the enemy defense, then take out the remaining resistance in the valley. It'll just be us operators, no Rangers or anything."

"Without the Rangers, sir?" asked Shikamaru.

"If we sent in the Rangers, they would be getting picked off quickly. They could eventually take the valley, but the defenses are well set up and most likely several ambush points. They need the stealth and surgical precision of us operators."

"Well set up defenses and ambush points across the whole valley? And we're taking it all on alone?" asked Shikamaru.

"No. There will be several other operator teams working to do the defenses and areas we won't."

"I see...so sending in the Rangers would also compromise our operations, correct?"

"Right. No Rangers. Just some spec op teams."

"Alright."

And so the Chinook flew off into the setting sun, back to the place Naruto and his fellow special operations troops called home, for just a while.


	3. Home sweet home

The Chinook finally landed back at the base. As Naruto and his ragtag team of operators stepped out for a stretch, they were surprised by what they saw. It looked like the place had been busy, looked like it had been getting hit pretty hard. A lot more defenses were up. Some of the regular army guys manned these defenses. They all stared as Naruto and his team passed. The operators were a point of respect for the Rangers and the army boys. They were the ones who made all the major targets disappear. No one knew much about their activities. The official name of the spec ops branch in which they worked was even classified, and so they were just referred to as "operators". They had civilian haircuts. They walked into the command tent and dropped off the old man. Then they were briefed by Asuma. He was well-respected both among the operators and the Rangers, even despite all the joking barbs he threw at both. Especially the Rangers. He frequently claimed he "hates the way they go about their HOOAH monkey shit". Even the Rangers got a laugh out of it. He was always smoking.

"Ok. We are inserting you at the base of the north end of the valley, where one of your operators and your marksman will set up a sniping postion on top one of the larger hills. 50. cal bullets, son. You get to explode heads and tear off body parts!" said Asuma.

Sasuke smirked. Things always made satisfying sounds when blown off by a Barret 50. caliber sniper.

"Your other two operators will clear this anti air gun right here."

"That's it, sir?" inquired Naruto.

"Don't think you're getting off the hook easy. This right here is gonna be decently fortified. I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't hack it!" jived Asuma.

"We can handle it, without a doubt."

"I certainly hope so. Your sniper will provide support for any of the operator teams that need it, not just yours. So try to keep the requests for sniping to a minimum."

"I will most certainly try."

"The operation begins an hour before midnight. You'll be staying up pretty late."

Kiba grumbled at this. They had to sleep in during the day again, having only just gotten back from a nighttime op. Dawn was spreading its fingers of rose over the sky. Naruto and his operators went off to catch some shut eye.

"What do you think of those operators?" inquired Asuma, speaking to the man they brought in.

He didn't receive a reply.

"Sir?"

Asuma turned around. The damn bastard was sleeping. Asuma looked at the old mans profile. He was famous for ignoring the advice the men on the ground gave. That was bad news. They'd have to wait and see how this turned out. He then looked at the files of the team he just assigned to the anti air. They had done quite an impressive number of ops, though never this deep in the Sound country before. They were reportedly a bit more tenacious than the usual operator. Asuma believed he assigned just the right guys to the gun. He doubted they could take it in one day, but since the Rangers weren't getting sent in, that was fine. Orochimaru and his band of terrorists in this little valley were gonna get fucked up good. Hopefully. The leader of the team he just briefed though. His file said strange things. Bad reputations, reputations that would normally stop one from leading a squad. Lone wolf hyper-lethal vector style reputations. But it went on to say he demonstrates great leading skills. It would be interesting to see how this turns out. Seeing how many ops they've come back from in one piece, it seemed to be working out well. This latest op, intelligence couldn't have been more off. Machine gun emplacements, several trucks of men, scout with a Dragunov, bomb on the target. It was supposed to be a simple snatch and grab. Yet Naruto and his team of misfits had taken it all, with barely much ammo. Asuma hoped intel didn't fuck up as badly as they did on that last one. The operators are assets almost too important to lose. It's the almost part that worries Asuma about the quality of the intel they receive.

"Damn. I am so tired." whined Shikamaru.

"Your candy ass tired from lugging that old fart around? Guy was all skin and bones, ya pansy." remarked Kiba.

"I sincerely apologize if I don't have boundless energy to throw around, like you seemingly do. I like to take things slowly."

"That's great, then. Your being Sasuke's spotter on this next op. Hopefully your eyes don't suck as bad as the muscles in your legs." said Naruto.

Kiba laughed. Shikamaru scowled.

"So I'm with you, taking on the AA gun, Naruto?" asked Kiba.

"Yes. That you are. We can't expect much sniper support from Sasuke though, he's gonna have his hands full. It's gonna be mostly just us two. You'll be packing an LMG in case we need suppressive fire on anything."

"Right."

"So, Sasuke. How you feeling about this 50 cal.?" asked Shikamaru.

"Let's just say I am overjoyed to get to split heads apart as though they were watermelons being thrown at high velocities against a wall."

"We're riding the Chinook we came in on, hour before midnight. Best we get some sleep before then." said Naruto.

They went into the tents to crash.

Asuma stared on at each of the files of each of these operators on Naruto's team, Naruto included. There was some interesting stuff on here. You'd think these are just a bunch of misfits fresh out of high school! All of them, except Shikamaru, were slightly infamous for hyper-lethal vector tactics, working alone. Yet, they seemed to work in teams so well. Shikamaru seemed more the natural leader, his file desribed him as cautious, intelligent. But, on account of his saying that he refuses to lead a team, Naruto was instead put as the leader. Once they got to the valley, they would probably have that rehashed so much episode of "AR PEE GEEEEEE!" (RPG) and crash land the chopper. That happened a lot. Asuma smoked his grand cigar. This was a team he was gonna keep close tabs on.

The Rangers outside were playing some basketball. A mortar hit, falling short of the base. Everyone carried on, seeming uncaring. The mortar strikes must have been awfully frequent, not to mention that the operators were soon gonna insert in the valley and clear it out. The Rangers wanted to clear it, but Asuma said it would be too dangerous to send a large force of Rangers right into the valley. Once the valley op was done, the Rangers in this base would probably get sent off fighting in other areas, while the operators handled this area. The Rangers were disappointed. They always wanted to work a joint op with the operators. The operators picked 10 men from the Rangers based on performance every year. 1 would become an operator by the time the training was over. Kiba and Shikamaru were once Rangers. Both became operators by this process. Both in different years, naturally. They were once in the same Ranger squad, and now in the same operator team. Ironic. It was almost every Ranger's dream to become an operator. The badasses of the army. A small truck of miscellaneous rebels came in. The Rangers decided to use the truck as target practice. The rebels thought that the mortars were hitting the base hard. Boy, were they wrong.

"50 points if you can shoot that guys hat off!" said Choji. (pretend he is much more fit in this universe)

Gaara expertly took the hat right off the dudes head without killing him, using an M21. (pretend Gaara's personality is much warmer in this universe, too.)

"100 if you can shoot the diamond off that other ones ring." said Gaara.

"Now that's just not fair!" said Choji. "A freaking diamond off a ring?"

Choji missed a few shots, using Gaara's M21.

"Aw, damn it. I give up. You win."

The Rangers shooed off the rebels. It looked like one was wetting himself. Amusing.

"Well, that's probably the most excitement we're getting here..." sighed Choji.


	4. Into the valley

Naruto and his team walked out the tent at an hour before midnight, and loaded up into the Chinook. They saw 5 other operator teams loading up into different choppers as well.

"What's our form of extraction gonna be?" Naruto asked.

"We'll send in 1 humvee for each different operator team. You'll meet with the humvee at your drop-off point." answered the chopper pilot.

Naruto sat back down. He hated flying into enemy territory on a chopper. RPGs were frequent occurrences.

The Rangers back at the base where watching with longing. How much they wanted to get in there and kick some ass with the famed operators. A few more mortars were hitting around the base. It was almost laughable now. Several of the Rangers were playing board games or basketball, or some baseball with quite primitive bases and bats, despite the dark of night. A few went off to sleep.

Just then a scout team Asuma had sent to scout the area around the valley returned. They reported there was a massive infestation of enemies in a village just a few clicks west of the valley. Asuma sighed. The operators were gonna pull a double op again. Asuma radioed Naruto.

"Sir?" said Naruto.

"The ops been changed. Once the valley gets cleared out, you operators have been ordered to take out an enemy infested village west of the valley."

Asuma heard an audible "WHAT?" from Kiba in the background.

"An op right on top of the other, sir? How are we gonna get to this village?" asked Naruto.

"The Humvees that were supposed to bring you home are taking you there, and then the Chinooks are instead gonna extract you when you're done with the village op."

Naruto was quiet for a while. Asuma knew he was probably pissed the hell off.

"...Sir, yes, sir. Naruto out." Naruto eventually said.

Asuma sighed. The old man Naruto's team extracted was getting up now.

"Good morning, sir. Well, I suppose it'd be good night. It's 2300 hours right now."

The old man grunted and went off to get cleaned up.

"What a jerk." commented Asuma.

Asuma knew his ops and orders were probably gonna conflict with this guys wishes, and he was the higher-up. Damn.

Back on the Chinook, Kiba was getting awful pissed, and Shikamaru was groaning.

"A goddamn op RIGHT on top of this one! You have got to be kidding!" exclaimed Kiba.

"Nope. Those are our orders." responded Naruto.

Shikamaru just gave a deep sigh.

"What about ammo? There's no way we can complete two ops with this much!" asked Kiba.

"The humvee taking us to our second op is gonna have fresh ammo for us."

"Oh, Sasuke, once we get this valley op done with, your switching over to an assault rifle and directly helping us with the village." said Naruto.

"Right." said Sasuke.

He seemed uncaring about this new op, thought Naruto. Then again, Sasuke never did show much emotion beyond the occasional smirk or frown.

"How close are we to our first ops LZ?" asked Naruto.

"It'll be about 15 minutes before we get there." responded the pilot.

"Alright..." said Naruto.

Asuma was unsure about this. Two ops in rapid succession. He knew the Rangers couldn't be sent in. It would cause too much trouble for the operators.

Naruto and his team arrived at the valley. They climbed up it, and Sasuke and Shikamaru perched on top on of the highest points on the mountain. Sasuke pulled out the 50 cal. Naruto and Kiba started heading towards their target. They saw a scouting team, and hid behind a rock.

"Wait for them, Kiba. When I say go, we take out our axes and kill them. I get the left guy, you get the right."

Naruto pulled out his axe. Kiba did the same. The scout team was slowly approaching. They passed the rock. Naruto and Kiba slowly advanced on them. Naruto put his hand around the left guys mouth, and drove the axe into the neck. Kiba decided to do it a little more viciously, and drove it straight down through the cranium. Both scouts lay dead. They continued silently advancing throughout the valley, until they saw a piece of the AA guns barrel pointing up. Asuma was right. It was impressively fortified. Naruto primed his M4 CQB, and Kiba did the same on his SAW. There was a slight slope upwards, and they could clearly see an MG position at the top.

"We need to find a way to sneak past that..." said Naruto.

"Only way I'm seeing here is to use the dark to our advantage, dart between the few hiding places there are up this slope." said Kiba.

Naruto thought about it. If they did that, they would eventually be right in front of the machine gun position.

"I dunno..." said Naruto.

They started doing as Kiba suggested. A sniper bullet suddenly bit in the ground next to Kiba.

"You have to got to be kidding. A damn sniper. Kiba! Take cover!"

The alarms sounded. They already got spotted. What excellent luck. Naruto spotted the sniper, and took him out. The MG started firing on them.

"Fuck! Sasuke! Can you take out this MG operator?"

"I've already got tons of targets the other teams want me to take out. It'll be a while." replied Sasuke.

"Kiba. Suppress the damn MG with your SAW. Don't stop shooting, just spread as many bullets over the fucker as you can!"

"Right. Commencing suppressive fire."

Kiba started shooting bullets at the machine gun.

Naruto advanced up a little, and took potshots at anyone other than the MG who might shoot Kiba.

"How much time, Sasuke?"

"Hold on. It'll be just a little longer."

Kiba was losing his cover.

"Kiba, move to a different position."

"Right."

Kiba moved, and continued firing on the MG.

Naruto neutralized a few more guys.

"I've gotta reload!" said Kiba.

The MG operator obviously capitalized on this, as he got out and started suppressing Kiba. Kiba couldn't dare to get back out and shoot back.

"Alright. Taking the shot." radioed in Sasuke.

He took the shot, obliterating the metal plate on the MG and scoring a headshot. The operators head exploded like a melon, sending blood everywhere. And made a statisfying sound.

"Thanks." said Naruto.

"You owe me a few drinks when we get back." replied Sasuke.

"Tsk..."

Naruto and Kiba continued advancing. There was a group of buildings, they'd have to carve their way through them, and then there was a large open field, likely being defended before they could reach the anti air. They approached the first building.

"Kiba. Stack up on that building, we're going to flash and clear."

"Roger. Flash and clear."

Kiba popped open the door just a little, threw a flashbang inside, and then shut the door. When the flash went off, he opened the door and he and Naruto entered and took out enemies in the building. It looked like a pretty cheap place. Little furniture, just a mini-fridge and a microwave. These guys obviously didn't get the best of accomodations. The walls were cracked everywhere, and it looked like rain had been seeping in through the roof. Tough floors, no carpets or anything. These guys apparently slept on the floor.

"We're clearing every single floor of every single building, Kiba. You check upstairs, I'm checking the basement. Kiba went up stairs. The stairs were old and creaky. Kiba did a general check of the upper floor.. There were three rooms. He decided to take the leftmost one first. He kicked down the door. Nothing there.

"Make sure you have your NODs on. These guys could be hiding anywhere." said Naruto.

Kiba turned on his NODs. He went to clear the room in the middle of the hallway. He kicked the door down again. There was a guy who charged him with an AK, and tried to bash Kiba. Kiba dodged, and quickly pulled out his axe and cut sidewards into the abdomen of his foe. Kiba then tackled him to the ground, and drove the axe deep in the guys forehead, right down the middle. He died immediately. Kiba exited the room. He went to the rightmost room in the old hallway. He kicked the door down yet again, and entered. Suddenly, one of Orochimaru's terrorists jumped at him and tried to kill Kiba with an axe. Kiba caught the dudes axe hand, however, Kiba's other hand was occupied by the mans other fist. It became a power struggle. Kiba grunted as he tried to wrestle away the axe from the mans hand. They both fell to the floor. Kiba quickly rolled so he was on the top, and headbutted the man right in the nose. This caused him to lose his grip on the axe, which Kiba then took and dug into the mans cranium, just as he did the other one.

Panting, Kiba said "I always did do better when I'm on the top...".

Kiba then laughed at his poorly made joke.

"Sounds like you were having fun up there." said Naruto, over the radio.

"Indeed. Wait...you were listening to all that?" replied Kiba.

"Well, I've got the basement cleared out. There was just one guy, easy kill."

"Lucky bastard..." muttered Kiba.

"Regroup at the back exit of the house, we're then going to take on the two buildings to the left and right of this one. I'm taking left house, you'll be taking right.

"Roger."

They regrouped and exited the building. Naruto went to the left house, Kiba went to the right.

Naruto kicked down the door, then immediately hid behind the wall of the house, avoiding the inevitable wave of AK fire that followed. Naruto then chucked a grenade inside, and once it exploded he peeked around the corner and finished off any stragglers. He examined the house. It looked awfully similar to the previous one, though the guards were apparently playing card games on a table until the alarm sounded back from the MG placement. He examined the house. Unlike the previous one, it had only a basement and no second floor. Naruto went down and checked the basement. Nobody there.

Kiba went over to the rightward house. He opened the door by a crack and threw a flash inside, shut it, and once the flash went off, he opened and took out the enemies inside. 3 guys. There was an upstairs. He checked it, and there was one room. He walked up to the door, and just before he kicked it down, he heard someone prime an AK. He quickly dove to the left, just before the AK fire spread through the door, obliterating it. When the fire stopped, Kiba poked his head through the hole in the door and headshotted the enemy. He was apparently reloading. The man also had a Dragunov. Convenient.

"Naruto, I've found a Dragunov and a decent sightline. Do I have permission to use this to my advantage?"

"Right. You'll cover me as I take down that final house up there. Shoot anyone that enters it while I'm in there."

"Sir."

Naruto went to clear the house. When he entered, it was empty. He heard Dragunov bullets being fired. They had an ambush planned for him. How lucky that Kiba got his hands on that Dragunov.

"Woot! 3 targets down, Naruto." said Kiba.

There was an upstairs. Naruto went up the stairs, and when he get to the top stair he saw a tripwire. He cut it with his axe, and just as he stepped up to where the tripwire was, a man came out and tackled him. Or tried to. Naruto rolled out of the way, and pumped bullets into the man as he hit the ground. The man had come out of the only room upstairs. Naruto checked the room. There was one thing in there. A picture of the man he had just killed, with a woman who was of similar age and a little girl. Wife and daughter, most likely. Naruto sighed. He hated seeing belongings to the people he killed. It reminded him that they were people too. Naruto exited the house.

"Alright, Kiba. Ditch the Dragunov and get down here, we're not far from the AA gun. We just have to cross that field."

"Yes. Cross the wide open field with tall grass everywhere. They could be hiding in there."

"Well, that's where we'll be hiding too. We're crawling through."

"Oh god..." muttered Kiba.

"Quit your damn whining. You're getting to be like Shikamaru."

They began crawling through the high grass. They were making good progress, until halfway through the field a 5-man patrol or so started passing.

"Shit. Kiba, don't move. If you have to get out of the way, do it real nice and slow."

"Right."

The first man in the patrol passed. They were probably looking for them, having heard the Dragunov fire. And they will find the bodies. Ah, well. The second one passed awfully close to Naruto. The third stepped right between him and Kiba. Kiba had to maneuver a little to get out of the way when the forth ones boot landed right in front of Kiba's face. Kiba froze.

"Don't...fucking...move..." Naruto said.

The forth man stopped. The fifth stopped right in front of Naruto, and asked the forth some questions. These guys spoke English.

"What's going on? Why did you stop? We have to find those men." said the fifth man.

"I thought I heard something shift in the grass. I don't know." replied the fourth.

"It must have been your stupid imagination again. Keep going, you uneducated monkey. Can't even tell the difference between wind shifting the grass and people moving through it."

"Implying your education was much better!"

Dawn had broken out a few hours ago, they suddenly realized. And they moved on. Naruto and Kiba continued advancing. They finally hit the AA gun. Naruto planted the C4 on it. They exited the field and took a shortcut through the valley back to their original LZ, and waited to blow the gun.

"Asuma. Mission accomplished."

"Wow. You guys work fast. That was less than a day."

"Right. Send the humvee now, so we can blow the damn AA gun up."

"Hold your horses. You have to wait for the rest of the operator teams."

Sasuke had been taking out several targets. The operators had plenty of requests to keep him busy.

"Well, they are almost done. Time for us to move, Sasuke."

Back at the base...

Asuma was getting pissed at the old man, whom was now commanding them.

"Sir, we can't! The operators are already almost done, and they can soon take out the vil-"

"I don't care! Send in the bloody Rangers and take out the village! The operators won't get it done fast enough, and that village is a major pain in the ass! Command wants it gone NOW!"

"Sir, the operators already have charges on the AA gun, and have a lot of the valley cleared! They don't need the damn Rang-"

"Like I said, a large force like the Rangers can just CRUSH the village while the operators go about their shit! We don't need to wait for the operators to get there!"

"Sir, the Rangers will just compromise the operators mission!"

"Send in the damn Rangers, Asuma! This is an ORDER!"

Asuma grudgingly silently radioed Naruto.

"Naruto, the old fart wants to insert the Rangers into the village. Now."

"What? That would compromise the op. The Rangers would lose a lot of men! Stall him!"

"...Right..."

...Goddamnit, I knew something like this was gonna happen, thought Asuma.

"I want the Rangers inserted in that village. Do it. Now."

"Hold on! Damn." said Asuma.


	5. Send in the fucking Rangers

"Sir, I am telling you, we don't need the Rangers in on this!" Asuma said.

"Send in the Rangers. It's better to a large force of fresh troops then some spec ops teams have been fighting through the night!"

"Sir, we already have 3 of the 5 spec ops teams moving around the village. We can't just send in the damn Rangers! The operators can take out the village with surgical precision!"

"If you don't send in the damn Rangers, I am disrupting your command in this operation and taking it over completely!"

Asuma thought quickly. He had to find some way to stall this.

"Ok, sir. Just hold on. The Chinooks need to be fueled." was the best Asuma could come up with.

"Then get it done quickly!" shouted the old man.

Naruto radioed in.

"Asuma, what's the story on the Rangers?"

"I'm stalling him, but they are gonna get sent in eventually. It's just a matter of time now."

"Damn...we need to rework the op then. We're gonna have Sasuke take out some of Orochimaru's guys in the mountain next to the village using his sniper, to stall any reinforcements sent in by the obviously large amount of noise the Rangers are gonna be making. The rest of us operators are gonna have to work through the mountains and specific parts of the village to clear landing zones when the Rangers need extraction. Other then that, I guess we can't help. We'll just come back in on the Humvees and let the Rangers do the rest. They're probably gonna lose quite a few men..."

Asuma sighed. He knew the Rangers were gonna lose a few men.

"Are those Chinooks done yet?"

"...Yes, sir." said Asuma, grudgingly.

"Good. I imagine you know what orders to give then."

And the old man went off, to take a chopper back to headquarters. That way, he can just yell at us through a damn TV.

"What are we gonna do, sir?" asked one of the scouts from the scout team.

"Send in the fucking Rangers."

"Sir, yes, sir."

The Rangers were overjoyed. They began getting their equipment ready, making sure their guns weren't malfunctioning. Several Chinook choppers were ready to insert them into the village. They stuffed extra ammo into pouches and dumped the stuff they didn't need. They discarded their NODs, and several other things that would have been deemed useless.

"Keeping your NODs, Gaara?" Choji asked as he discarded his own and picked up some extra ammo.

"There's always a chance this could be drawn out into a long firefight. Best to keep the NODs."

"Your loss on extra ammo, pal."

Shino came over, equipped with a M16A4 rifle.

"I've been assigned to your Ranger squad." he said.

"The more, the merrier." said Choji.

Gaara remained silent.

"Most squads have 4 people. Where's our fourth?"

"Probably coming over any minute now." responded Shino.

They saw another Ranger coming over. He had bushy brows and a bowl cut. He was equipped with a SAW.

"Sir, specialist Lee reporting in, sir!"

"You can drop the formalities. The leader of this squad is Gaara, over there." said Choji, who then pointed at Gaara.

"Sir! I will make no excuse for my lateness. I apologize."

"You don't need to. Let's just load up into the damn chopper, if you're all ready." said Gaara.

They got into the chopper, along with another Ranger squad.

The rest of the Rangers, too, were loading up into their choppers. The choppers took off, flying into the sunset, into the village.

Asuma shook his head.

"Sir?" asked one of the scouts.

"That old man fucked this op six ways to Sunday..."

There was an impressive number of choppers flying, an impressive force of the mighty Rangers. A lot of the Rangers wanted to show off their skill, wanted to become an operator.

"Are we doing this in junction with the operators?" asked Choji.

"No. Highly unlikely. The operators were originally supposed to be doing this village op, though." responded Gaara.

"Huh. Why are we being sent in, then?"  
"The old man that one of the operator teams extracted and Asuma were having quite the fight over the op. I didn't pick up much, but Asuma was clearly against our being sent into the village, while the other dude wanted us in there, ASAP."

"Ah."

Sasuke and Shikamaru set up a sniping position in the mountains. Naruto and Kiba were heading in a section of the village to clear out an LZ for the Rangers. They got within sight of the LZ, then hid and waited.

"What are we waiting for, Naruto?" asked Kiba.

"We have to wait for the Rangers to actually get in here. We shoot them now, we compromise the Rangers and ourselves before the ops even started."

The Rangers were approaching the village. Looking out the back hatch, Choji saw something.

"RPG! R P MOTHERFUCKING GEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The Chinook pilot managed to dodge the incoming RPG. Choji managed to take a shot and kill the RPG. Just then, another RPG hit the side of the Chinook.

"Shit. I can still control her, but I'm gonna have to set you boys down." said the pilot.

He got low enough, and they all jumped out the Chinook and landed softly into the dirt.

One of the choppers got blown to hell, and the Rangers in that chopper just took an impressive fall after jumping out. The Chinook that had been carrying Gaara and his team got blown up too. It crashed into the ground.

"Oh, shit..." said Choji.

"Come on. We're gonna go up this slope and find a way to flank into that mountain so we can take out those motherfuckers. MOVE!" said Gaara.

And so they got moving.

The other Rangers returned fire at a bunch of guys that came out of nowhere. Ambush.

"Oh shit. We've got several wounded! Drag the wounded into cover while we handle these guys!" Gaara and his team could hear in the distance. An RPG came at the Rangers, but missed. Lucky.

"Come on, hurry up, they won't last down there forever." said Gaara.

Sending in the Rangers was going just as bad as Asuma thought...

Authors note: I know there's not been much clarity as to what the operators and Rangers are fighting. They are essentially fighting a terrorist group, sort of like Al Qaeda, led by Orochimaru. Why they are fighting and where they are will become more apparent in the later chapters of the story.


	6. Village Sweep

Gaara and his team advanced up the mountain. They came upon a large group of enemies, apparently suspecting a team to be sent in to clear out the RPGs. They took cover.

"Shit, there's a lot of 'em, I count a minimum of 10 dudes in there." said Choji.

"Then that's a minimum of 10 dudes Lee will be suppressing until we can get an airstrike on those fuckers. They're holed up in two huts, no way we can kill them all in time alone." said Gaara.

"Yes, sir!" said Lee.

Lee sprayed bullets with his SAW over the two buildings, hoping to keep the enemy down, while Gaara, Choji, and Shino were huffing it up to the buildings to put some red smoke on them.

Shino radioed command.

"We need an airstrike in the mountains just before the village, two huts, danger close, marking with smoke."

"Roger. The strike will come in when target is marked."

Lee was doing a good job of keeping the enemy down so far. Gaara and his team were almost up to the building.

"Fuck it, Shino, just chuck it!" said Choji.

Shino did. It landed squarely between the two buildings.

"Smoke is popped."

"Roger, we see it, 20 seconds to impact."

"Quickly, get away from the buildings!" ordered Gaara.

They quickly huffed it down, and took cover next to Lee.

"3...2...1...splash."

The airstrike came in, creating a most fantastic explosion, destroying a good portion of each building. Debris from the buildings flew everywhere. The buildings then crumbled on top of each other. Stifling, dark black smoke was everywhere. Gaara and his team came out coughing. There were a few stragglers, still trying to gain their wits about them, others crying in pain from various wounds the airstrike inflicted. Gaara and his team finished them.

"Aw, shit. Nice one!" said Choji, still coughing.

"We do aim to please. We do have enough for a second pass, so just mark another target again should you need it."

They walked a little past the building. A cry came from the left, and Gaara whirled around before getting tackled to the ground and getting hit in the face by the rifle butt of an AK. Gaara could see intense fear in his attackers eyes. The man then pointed the gun at Gaara's head, screaming at the top of his lungs, but was quickly executed by Shino before he could pull the trigger.

"Saved your life." commented Shino.

Gaara grunted. He didn't expect any of these terrorists to be able to so rapidly regain their bearings and senses after such a rattling airstrike. He'd have to be more careful. The guy hit pretty damn hard.

"Come on, one hit to the face and your out, you little pansy ass?" taunted Choji.

"How 'bout I hit you straight across the face with an AK, then tackle you to the damn ground? Only, in this iteration, I'll pull the trigger when I have the gun in your face." retorted Gaara, jokingly. Or so Choji hoped.

"Ah...I'll pass." responded Choji.

"Anyways, let's get moving. Our buddies down there aren't gonna last forever."

They hiked up the mountain, and came upon the site of the guys who were raining the RPGs on the choppers that the Rangers flew in on.

"Take 'em out." said Gaara.

Lee had already started tearing into them with the SAW. Choji and Shino each started shooting into them with their M4A1 Carbines. Gaara was equipped with an M21 EBR. A few of the survivors of Gaara's squad initial wave of fire pulled out AK's and started returning fire, but not fast enough. They were quickly ended by the far more trained Rangers.

Gaara radioed in the primary force of the Rangers.

"Do you have the ambush down there taken care of? We have the RPG situation handled."

The reply that came back sounded tired.

"Yeah, we managed to counter the ambush. Lost 3 guys, quite a few wounded. Listen, you guys are gonna have to compensate for the guys that are out of the action, the section you people were to take on with two squads is now gonna be handled by one, you guys. You can get there from that mountain you are on, hurry it up. The rest of the Rangers are moving into the villages. God damn...we haven't even gotten to the village and this ops all fucked up to hell."

"Roger, moving to our target."

"So, what's the story, Gaara?" asked Lee.

"We are taking on the sector assigned to us by ourselves, our buddies down there got banged up pretty bad, and have quite a few wounded."

"Ourselves, eh? Doesn't that just sound like the most fun we'll ever have in a long while?" remarked Choji.

"You were the one who was pissing your pants about not being able to get to work an op in this sector, now you're getting all whiney?" said Gaara.

"I was hoping the op wouldn't involve explosives being shot at our chopper before we even get to the target."

"Who's being the god damn pansy now..." Shino quietly remarked. Choji didn't catch wind of the remark.

They began working their way through the mountain and into their target area.

"Eyes peeled, there could be more men in this mountain." said Gaara.

As they advanced through the mountains, they saw rapid movement in the bushes.

"Keep your weapons trained on those bushed. Don't take your eyes off of them." instructed Gaara.

The movement stopped. Gaara and his squad stared at the bushes, tensely waited to see what they held. A single terrorist popped out, whom was quickly silenced by a wave of bullets. Gaara and his squad moved on. They encountered a few guys here and there, but the mountain seemed otherwise devoid of enemy activity. Gaara and his team arrived upon a dead body. His arm had been blown off, he had apparently died from bleeding out or shock. There was also a huge indent in the wall of rock behind the man.

"Sniper. 50 caliber rounds. Guy never stood a chance." said Shino.

"A sniper, armed with a 50 cal., taking out Orochimaru's guys? Must be a godsend." said Choji.

Gaara stood quiet. The op never detailed a sniper armed with a 50 cal. to support them. They saw that there was also two dead bodies up on a faraway ridge, one with his head obliterated, the other with a huge hole right in his torso. It was a sniper team that had apparently been waiting to ambush the Rangers.

"...Let's keep moving. Our objective is right down there."

Choji looked.

"...Two huts, surrounded by open field and mountains. Perfect."

"We're clearing that hut closest to us. Move." instructed Gaara.

"Lee. Kick down the door."

Lee moved and did it. They heard a strange noise.

"Shit! LEE! Get DOWN!" exclaimed Gaara.

The whole front section of the hut exploded. Lee was knocked backwards. They weren't sure if Lee was still alive.

"Fuck! Choji! Drag him behind the piece of wall from the hut that's still left! Hurry up!"

They took cover behind the wall. Choji dragged Lee behind it. Inspecting him, they could see that he was still alive, but was on the brink of unconsciousness. He was beginning to recover from the disorientation.

"Shit, man. Kevlar saved his life." said Choji.

"Lee! Can you still shoot? Get the hell UP, man!" said Gaara.

"I do not know..." Lee said, still disoriented by the explosion.

"Choji! Take his SAW and give him your M4."

Choji and Lee swapped weapons. A large swarm of men were coming from the mountains.

"Choji, spray over those damn sons-a-bitches! Lee, quit grovelling on the ground and get shooting!" Gaara ordered.

Lee managed to pick himself up and begin shooting at the men. There was a whole shit storm of 'em. The once-large piece of wall that was left of the hut was slowly being destroyed by the bullets.

"Shit! Shino! Radio in for airstrikes, another shooter, anything!" said Gaara.

"Right. Command, this is Shino, we need another airstrike. Is that second pass still ready?"

"It is. Go ahead and designate target, but note that he can NOT make another pass."

"Right. Gaara, we've got one and just one pass. There's no way it will take out all of them, so we just have to make it count."

"Right, Shino. Designate them, hurry up about it."

Shino marked them down for the airstrike using the binoculars.

"Roger, targets marked. 5 seconds. 1...2...3...4...5...splash."

The airstrike hit and obliterated a lot of the men. It seemed like a relief at first, but just as many men came back out of the mountains to replace them.

"You've gotta be fucking with me!" said Choji.

"We are losing our cover!" said Lee. "We should move to that other hut over there."

"Right. Come on, let's move!" ordered Gaara.

They got in the hut. They returned fire at the growing number of men.

"Shit...Shino, we need another shooter or something! Radio in the main force!"

"Right. Ok, we are pinned down and need another shooter. High number of men. Send anybody. Be snappy about it." Shino said to the rest of the Rangers.

"Right. We've got a shooter sent to you." responded someone, for Gaara and his squad were too deep in shit to care.

They were taking out guys by the dozens, but several more continued to replace the men they killed.

"Oh fuck! RPG! RPG!" said Choji.

And sure enough, the front section of the hut they were just returning fire behind exploded, getting obliterated completely.

"Damn it...fall back to the second room of the hut..." Gaara said in between coughs. "I want you shooting ANYONE you see with an RPG, Shino."

Shino, also coughing heavily, took a while to respond, disoriented. "Yes, sir."

They fell back to the second room of the half destroyed hut, and continued to return fire. The terrorists still continued to advance upon their tiny little hit. Shino kept his eye out for RPG's, and took out the one who had just destroyed the hut and two more who were getting ready to take shots.

"Damn it, they are closing the distance quickly!" said Lee.

A large number of men bumrushed their little hut. Choji sprayed SAW bullets into them, quickly dropping them.

"Here comes an RPG! Get down!" said Shino.

They all dove, and the wall to their left got obliterated in a manner like-wise to the first room of the hut.

They fell back to the only remaining wall of the hut.

Shino didn't need orders from Gaara.

"This is Shino, call back your shooters. We're not making it out of this one."

"...Yes, sir. Kick some ass while you still can." replied the Ranger who was about to send them a shooter.

The squad continued to hopelessly fire into the approaching horde of enemies.

"I am out!" said Lee.

"Last mag, Lee. Make it count." Shino handed his last mag to Lee.

Choji, too, was running out of bullets for his SAW. Gaara had already ran out and was now just spraying pistol bullets from his M9 into the advancing foes.

"I'm all out." said Shino.

"I am as well." said Lee.

Only Gaara and Choji had ammo to shoot with now, and Gaara was just using an M9.

But then large explosions racked among the advancing terrorists. A lot of bodies flew into the air, and the mountain was being racked with explosive fire. Dust and grime was being sent everywhere. A huge dust cloud rose up, and the only thing Gaara and his squad could see was that the terrorists began retreating. A man had sneaked up behind them, and got Gaara in a chokehold, but before he could even begin to pull out his axe his head exploded and sent blood all over Gaara.

"Shit...what the fuck was that?" said Gaara.

They looked skyward. An AC130. But that didn't explain the 50 cal. Barret bullet. Someone was a really good shot with the thing.

"Nice hits, Viper 1. You can pull out now." said Shikamaru.

The AC130 responded.

"Alright, I'll just be buggin' out for now. Happy hunting."

"Man, Sasuke. That was risk of friendly fire. I must say that was an incredible shot, especially considering all that dust." said Shikamaru.

"Those Rangers down there owe us big time, on TOP of the drinks Naruto already owes us when we obliterated that MG position. We're on a roll today, Shikamaru." said Sasuke.

"Right, let's get moving. We are officially done here."

Sasuke and Shikamaru headed out to their designated extraction point. Naruto had radioed that he and Kiba were already there. Clearing the LZ for the Rangers had been nice, quick, and easy, apparently.

"We never had an AC130 ready for us, did we?" asked Choji.

"Can't say we did. Who cares, though. We fucking MADE it!" said Gaara.

"Let's just get to the LZ." said Shino. "Our time here is over."

"You can sure as hell say that again..." said Choji.

"Whaddya think of those Rangers?" asked Kiba.

"They did kick quite a bit of ass, all things considered. Taking on a whole village, only 2 huts for cover, etc." Shikamaru responded.

"Let's get out of here. I'll buy you those drinks, Sasuke." said Naruto.

Sasuke smirked.


	7. Capture

Authors note_: flashback will_ be used to indicate the beginning and end of flashbacks for the purpose of this story.

The Rangers were being flown back to base on the Chinook. The Chinooks were to be refueled and then to fly the Rangers off to another sector to handle assignments there, hopefully not in interference with the operators. Naruto and his team were being driven back on a humvee, Shikamaru was sitting in the back seat snoozing. Kiba was on the 50 cal turret in the event that they should run into anything. Naruto was sitting next to the driver.

"Hey, driver. I can't say I know who you are. What force are you in?" asked Naruto.

"Ranger." responded the driver, in a seemingly cold and emotionless voice.

"Are you usually behind the wheel of a humvee or are you driving just for this specific op?"

"My role is usually rifleman."

"Any family?" asked Naruto.

"Brother. Mother and father are dead."

"Do you talk much?"

"No."

"And why not?"

"No need to address others beyond the basic requirement."

Guy's kind of a jerk, thought Naruto.

The conversation got dropped, as Naruto clearly wasn't getting this guy to open up. Naruto looked at his eyes. The dude looked totally out of it, his eyes were seemingly empty, as if they were spaced out. He clearly wasn't, as he was driving in a straight line.

"Man. This guy's got as much personality as a wet dish rag..." muttered Naruto.

The humvee grew quiet. Naruto had a need to begin asking the driver questions again, despite his previous failure in effectively starting up a conversation with the man.

"Do you have a name?" inquired Naruto.

"I do." responded the driver.

"What is it?" Naruto asked, irritated.

"No need for you to know."

"Damn. Cold as ice." Naruto could hear Kiba say from his turret position. Kiba was chuckling.

"And what, Kiba, is so amusing?" asked Naruto.

"Your failure to start conversation, obviously."

"Bah." was all Naruto could think to say back.

Night was once again stretching its large, dark fingers over the great sky. Naruto felt nervous. It was easy enough to ambush a lone humvee at night. The palms of his hands felt sweaty, and Naruto wondered why he was panicking so much now when he had been faced with many ambushes and worse situations before.

"How much longer 'till we get there?" asked Naruto.

"Half an hour." responded the driver.

Naruto groaned. That was 30 minutes for them to get ambushed. He didn't feel like having his humvee blown up and having to walk back to the base, if he was gonna be walking back there at all. This driver didn't exactly pack any humor to keep the ride warm either.

Naruto stared out into the endless expanse of desert before them. The road laid out in front of them seemed to never end, extending far into the dark night. There wasn't much to look at out the window, just the same shades of tans and browns over and over again. There wasn't much vegetation. There was a few beat up and aged adobe buildings that they were passing by, but other then that there was not much to be remarked upon in the endless field of sand. Naruto began to hazily doze off and remember things that happened in his distant past, when he was in training for the famed operators. He got to bypass going into the Rangers and was just sent straight to operator training, because he was viewed as "special" for reasons unknown to him.

_flashback_

On the first day of recruitment, the instructor, Iruka, took a particular interest in Naruto. He had the recruits gather around him and asked "Who wants to wrestle this man?". The man looked far bigger and more muscular than any of the recruits there. One of the recruits dared to raise his hand. He and the wrestler man, whom Iruka just referred to as "The Wrestler", circled around each other for a while. The recruit charged. The Wrestler simply sidestepped, grabbed the recruit around the torso, and threw him to the ground. The recruit got back up, and charged again. This time the Wrestler let the recruit grab him. The recruit appeared to almost tackle the man to the ground, but the man reversed the momentum and it was instead the recruit grovelling on the floor. The first challenger sat back down in the circle. Another raised his hand. He charged the Wrestler in a manner similar to the first, and just as quickly as he had began charging he was flying through the air and made a tough landing on another recruit, brought down even more quickly than the one who had tried before him. After several tried their hand at bringing the big man down, with all of them failing, Naruto raised his hand to attempt it.

Naruto and the Wrestler stared eachother down for a little while, Naruto pondering what strategy he could bring down the much larger man with. Naruto then charged, just like those before him. However, when the man attempted to grab Naruto in order to reverse his momentum and throw him to the ground, Naruto stepped back just out of reach of the mans arms. Now without defense, Naruto threw himself at the big guy, and almost brought him down, however, using his superior physique and size, the big man managed to overpower Naruto and threw him to the ground.

Iruka was fascinated. Few recruits before had ever attempted strategy over strength against this man. He could see that the Wrestler was going to try a little against Naruto, his interest apparently piqued as well.

Naruto could see that trying to bring the man down by charging at center mass wasn't going to work. He'd have to bring the man down by tackling his knees, if the man would allow himself to get that open.

This time, the man charged at Naruto. Naruto clearly didn't have the strength to do as the Wrestler had done to the other recruits, so he merely dodged rather than trying to overpower his foe. Naruto could see that his opponent had switched back to a defensive stance. He charged again, making it appear as though he were going for center mass. The man waited until Naruto was close to see if Naruto was going to try something, and when Naruto didn't, he began to counter Naruto's charge. When he reached to grab Naruto, however, Naruto this time rolled out of the way. He had expected this, and turned to counter Naruto's second attack, however, he blocked his torso, and not his legs, which Naruto then dove for. The man was taken by surprise, but he himself managed to roll out of the way.

Naruto could see that he was defeated, for he, despite having employing intelligence, was not fast nor strong enough to overtake The Wrestler. He took back his seat.

"Naruto. I wish to speak with you after we are done today." Iruka said.

"Sir." responded Naruto.

When all the activities of the day were finished, Naruto went to have his talk with Iruka.

"I must say I was fascinated by your ability to reason through fights, which will no doubt help you as an operator. Since you clearly, however, lack a strong physique, that is what we will concentrate on. While we don't expect you to take on men that are bigger than you by as much as The Wrestler in your operator career, you will take on men that are larger and stronger. It is clear that you can easily handle these situations – assuming you have the strength and agility to win even when aided by your intellect."

"Yes, sir." responded Naruto.

"You don't have to be so cold. Humor is the only thing that's gonna be keeping you warm out in the battlefield." Iruka said.

"Sir?" inquired Naruto.

"I'm saying that you should relax a bit. A humorous soldier is often a well-liked one, and a humorous soldier is often the one that can produce laughs even in the grim conditions of battle. If you're so serious all the time, well, the battlefields gonna be a harder place for you then it can be."

"We were tol-" said Naruto, but Iruka interrupted.

"Yes, yes, you were told to show respect your drill instructors. But that doesn't mean you have to go around saying nothing but "Yes, sir." in that dull and boring voice."

"Yes, si-" started Naruto, but was interrupted again.

"What did I just say?" Iruka chuckled. "Alright, time for you to go."

"Right..." said Naruto.

And off Naruto went to his bunk.

_flashback_

Naruto was being shaken awake. Being ground back into reality and no longer the past, Naruto woke up.

"That was a good nap...what'd ya wake me up for?" said Shikamaru, who the driver had woken up as well.

"There were lights in the building up ahead. Probable ambush." the driver said in his dull tone.

Naruto, suddenly alert, told Kiba to get ready and primed his own weapon, an M4 CQB. Clearly seeing that it got too dark to see much beyond the light provided by the car, Naruto and the rest of his squad, including the driver, switched on their NODs.

"Drive forward slowly...at least we'll have the armor of the humvee then." Naruto told the driver.

The driver started moving the humvee towards the building, going slowly.

Sweat beaded down Naruto's forehead. This was probably not going to turn out well. They got relatively close to the building. Naruto saw a brief shine out of one of the windows of the building.

"Shit! Open those doors and jump out! RPG! RPG!" Naruto shouted.

They did. The humvee exploded and burst into flames. Pieces of it flew everywhere.

Bullets bit into the ground around them as men started popping out of the windows of the building and opening fire on Naruto and his group.

"Take cover behind the wrecked humvee. Move!" Naruto ordered.

They moved behind the humvee and started returning fire at their ambushers. More men began coming out of nowhere. There was a much larger force than just the men in that building. They were clearly surrounded.

"Put down your weapons and do not resist!" the leader of the group said in a strange accent.

The driver of the jeep didn't listen. He whipped out a pistol and popped the speaker right in the head. A wave of AK fire soon silenced the driver.

"Shit..." said Kiba.

"As my now dead comrade said, do not resist." said another of the terrorists.

"Fuck...of course we get the damn ambush on our way home..." muttered Shikamaru.

The operators threw their weapons down. The men came and threw them to the ground, and blindfolded and tied their hands together with coarse rope. They were then taken off and put into a vehicle of some sort, each was in a different vehicle. The vehicles got started and they started getting taken off somewhere. The man who tied Naruto's blindfold clearly was not an expert. He tied it too tight, so Naruto could still see by tilting his head back, and looking through the small slit under the blindfold, making it appear as if he were sleeping.

They were being taken off the dirt road was all that Naruto could tell, other than that, it seemed the same old expanse of tans and browns, nothing but the dirt and rocks.

It seemed that they were driving for what must have at least been a few hours when Naruto was finally thrown out the car and then taken off inside some building. The building looked much finer than the dilapidated adobe buildings Naruto had seen before, having carpet, polished wooden floors, nice looking doors, decently decorated rooms. Naruto was taken up a set of polished wooden stairs, into another room, and then put in a chair. The blindfold was removed, but his hands were still died.

Before Naruto sat a man with long dark hair, yellow snake-like eyes, and pale skin.

"Do I need introduction?" said the man.

"Perhaps you might." replied Naruto.

"I see...I am the leader of the forces you have been fighting this whole time, the one you fighters for the land of leaves call Orochimaru." he said.

It suddenly dawned on Naruto that he might have been in deeper shit than he thought. That meant that this place was well-reinforced. It would be impossible to escape.

"I have a few questions for you..." Orochimaru said in his strange voice.

"Ask away." Naruto said.

"...Why do you fight for the land of leaves, for Konoha?" asked Orochimaru.

It was not the kind of question Naruto had been expecting.

"...It's my home, the place where I was born, raised, schooled, lived my life, felt everything that I have, and it has been a good place. I feel a natural patriotism towards it."

"Yes, I cannot argue with you that it is indeed a decent place..." said Orochimaru.

Naruto was puzzled. What was this man trying to gain?

"Next...what do you think of its leaders, the government for which you fight for?"

"I didn't pay attention in class, so I probably wouldn't know much about the government of Konoha."

Orochimaru chuckled.

"They are a very corrupt peoples...old men sitting in expensive lodgings throwing lives of soldiers around to fight their wars!" he said.

"I'm not seeing the point of this interrogation." Naruto said.

"An interrogation, is what you think this is?" Orochimaru asked quietly.

"It's not?"

"I am merely asking for your opinions on matters. I am not grilling it out of you." Orochimaru said.

This puzzled Naruto further.

"What do you think of the wars that Konoha has fought...including the one that it fought just before this one?" Orochimaru asked.

"The only war I am familiar with is this one and the one prior, so I can't say much on the subject." Naruto said.

"Then you know of the valley battle, the one that took place just on the valley you and your team of, ah, what do they call them?" Orochimaru asked.

"Operators." Naruto responded.

"...Your team of operators just took. Do you know what occurred on this battle?"

"Yes. I do." Naruto responded.

"Then you know of how many lives were lost over that pitiful valley, simply because the old men saw it as necessary that the valley be taken, ignoring all advice given to them, saying it was absolute that it be done their way. Many lives were wasted fighting their war, and they lived in contentment, looking down on the soldiers with contempt. Hatred. Seeing our lives as ones to be thrown around to gain what they desired." Orochimaru said.

"...Excuse me, but "our lives"? What would you know of this?" asked Naruto.

Orochimaru sat quiet for a second.

"...Because I was once a Konoha soldier, who fought in that very valley."

Naruto had to take a second to process all of this. It was shocking.

"Then why do you fight against your homeland now?"

"I wish to retake it from the foolish men that lead it, to establish a new government, one that cares about its peoples and listens to the masses, one that makes wise military decisions, one that knows how successfully develop relations with other countries, one that doesn't doesn't prepare for war like a shrewd fox and for peace like retarded pygmies! One that knows how to effectively rule a country!" Orochimaru responded.

"I can see with you eye to eye on that one. But your attempts to do this still take lives, still consume Konoha with fire, still fill many of its residents with sorrow. Isn't it enough that it finished the previous war with peace talks and treaties and not destruction? It can rebuild itself."

"Yes...they do." said Orochimaru. "But, in the end, a new Konoha shall be born, as with its corrupt government, I doubt there will be much rebuilding..."

Naruto looked at him for a second. This Orochimaru man might have not been as brutish as he was made out to be, but still. Konoha was his country.

"...You want me to join you in your quest to take Konoha?" Naruto asked.

"Yes...I was getting to that."

"Sorry, but the current Konoha, the one I have always lived in, shall remain my home, and shall remain the place that I am a soldier to."

"...You have a brilliant mind, I can see that. A mind rife with potential. Why does such a mind fight for such a government?"

Naruto was silent.

"...You and your squad mates will be released. No harm to you people will be done. You can take one of the civilian trucks from this village and go." Orochimaru said.

"Just like that?" asked Naruto.

"Yes." Orochimaru responded.

A man came and removed the handcuffs. He walked Naruto out the building, where he was regrouped with his squad, and was then handed a truck.

Naruto and his squad set off into what was now a sunset, to go back to home, back to fight for Konoha.

"So...how was it?" asked Kiba.

"Interesting." said Naruto. "I'm going to sleep."

"Hey!" said Shikamaru. "How come you get to sleep and I hafta drive?"

Kiba laughed.

And so they rode off back to the base.


End file.
